New Zealand America’s Cup Challenge

From the heady days of New Zealand's first Challenge for the America's Cup with the "plastic fantastic" KZ7 in the waters off Fremantle, W.A., New Zealand's America's Cup History has developed to become a long and proud one.

We were retained to undertake the development and implementation of marketing and sponsorship strategies for the 1992 New Zealand America’s Cup Challenge in San Diego.

NZL20 was the boat that represented New Zealand in that year’s Louis Vuitton Cup, eventually losing to Il Moro Di Venezia in controversial circumstances. This was the campaign in which NZL 20’s bow sprit became the focus of attention both on and off the water.

This extraordinary assignment, which resulted in the raising of NZD$50 million in sponsorship revenues, included the introduction of the original “Family of Four” Gold Sponsor Strategy which went on to form the basis of all subsequent Sponsorship Programmes for a later New Zealand Challenges and defense.